Seo Hwa
by Izzu
Summary: Gu Family Book: Mentions of Ep 21-22. It was strange how one woman could mean so much to him.
1. Chapter 1

Seo Hwa

by Izzu

o

o

"Wol Ryung!"

Again... this woman's voice gave him such strange sensation that he could not understand. Who is this woman? Why the mere sight of her, the mere sound of her voice... sent shivers into his cold heart? Was this the woman the wretched human said was the one responsible to him being like this? What was the name again...?

In a blink of an eye, Wol Ryung advanced forward and grabbed on the woman's neck. He could see fear registered in her eyes and... why did she seemed like not wanting to struggle for her life? He could so easily crush her neck right now... why did he feel no compulsion to kill her? If he kill her now, perhaps his confusion would cease but...

She's crying...

Why did he feel hurt at seeing her cry? He was hurting her... but it seemed that the one more in pain was himself.

CLICK.

He could hear something, that human was aiming something towards them; no... her! That human was going to shoot her!

Somehow his body moved by itself, and he turned and shielded the woman from harm. Something small hit him from the back and it hurt. It hurt so much... why did he do this? This was almost similar with that other child, who did the same thing... shielding him from being hit by arrows. Saving him... who tried to kill the child. He still didn't understand, who was that child... who said that he'd stop him from killing. That child... who smelled like this woman; as well as himself.

They parted and the woman looked alarmed, she was hurt as well but not as badly as him. She gasped.

"Wol Ryung!"

The woman kept crying and calling his name... somehow, why did it move him so much? As if there was something he'd forgotten, yet his body still remembered. The woman's touch... for some reason it calmed him.

"WOL RYUNG!"

Somehow, there was something returning. There was a face, a familiar face. Someone important that he shouldn't ever forget... who...?

"S... Ssse..."

A name seemed to pop up inside his mind, but as he tried to grasp on it... it felt so far away! He kept staring at the woman in front of him, it seemed looking at her face could make him remember. Something...

Something important...!

Somehow the darkness start to ease away, it's like a part of his mind that was shrouded in darkness started to clear. How could this woman do this to him? How...?

...the name... it seemed to that he might be able to grasp it!

"Wol Ryung..."

There it was again! As if there was a long lost memory urging him to remember. A fond face... a greatly missed voice... that important person! How could... he even forget the memories of that person?

"Seo... Seo Hwa?"

"Yes..." Seo Hwa answered. "You remembered?"

Hearing that confirmation with his own ears made his heart burst into emotion. Just how badly his heart had been waiting to hear it.

"I missed you so much!"

Seo Hwa called out his name again and they embraced. He never realised how much he missed this, holding her close. Not caring about anyone else in this world. Just the two of them, together.

"Let's go back now..."

And that's... the only thing that matters now.

xxx

Seo Hwa passed out halfway before they reached Moonlight Garden. As he put her down inside the den, Wol Ryung frowned. It seemed as if he'd done something similar like this... before, but he could not recall if there were any such memory. Even though it was a very important memory.

In the end... it was just her face, her name that he remembered. Anymore than that, he could not recall. If this memory also disappeared, he might as well kill her for real. And a part of him that still remember her chilled at that notion. He would not be able to bear with that thought.

The only person who could stop him, Seo Hwa.

He barely remembered how she managed to stop him from hurting that child. And she did stopped him from killing any more people... earlier. If she was gone... no one else would be able to stop him. Perhaps.

That's why he asked her to leave him when she can. Because he didn't want to hurt her. But then she started apologising.

He knew something was wrong when she went quiet for a moment. He turned to see her showing him a knife, explaining to him how she kept it for so long. How would she turn things back to the way it used to be with that knife?

He didn't expect to see her stabbing herself instead.

"Seo Hwa!"

Why did she have to kill herself? Why... for him...

And then it all came back to him. Every little memory they had... and shared together. He could remember clearly how young Seo Hwa looked back then. How beautiful she was... that made his heart flutter ever so lightly. And now, that very same heart ached. He took a closer look at the wooden knife and realised what it truly was. A hawthorn knife.

"Please..."

"Please let it go!"

He couldn't let Seo Hwa die, not now. Not when they're finally together! They've been through a lot, they cannot be separated again so soon...

"Let go... please!"

"I love you..." Her voice was so weak. "...Wol Ryung."

It hurt. It felt as if the hawthorn knife had pierced his heart as well. Why did things have to end like this?

"And I'm sorry... that my love... only amounts to this,"

Seo Hwa placed a hand on his cheek as he held onto that hand caressing his cheeks. No, he wanted to say. This was not only the extent of her love. He knew. He knew it all along. Because not a moment during the brief time since their marriage... did Seo Hwa ever thought of returning to the villages and avenge her family. Not until that time. Back then, he knew that Seo Hwa had loved him back. But he always feared her rejection if she knew the truth about him. That she'd leave him if she knew. He was scared of that happening to him...

Seo Hwa smiled that beautiful smile of hers. The sweet smile that he dreadfully missed, as much as her voice calling out his name. There's so much that he wanted to say, there's still too much he wanted to tell her. She cannot go away, not now when they're finally together. She cannot!

Just then, Seo Hwa let out a pained sigh and he could hear her breathing becoming faint, her heartbeats becoming slow. Even as he was holding her hand he could feel her strength leaving her body.

"No, Seo Hwa!"

He kept on calling her name but there was no reply. Seo Hwa's body continue to grow cold, no matter how much he cried for her. Seo Hwa has died, she won't be opening her eyes to see him anymore.

His beloved wife has died, in order to turn him back from being a demon. There were still so many things he wanted to show her, to share with her. He wouldn't be able to do it anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Seo Hwa

by Izzu

o

o

_"Wol Ryung... is that you?"_

_"Is that my friend, Wol Ryung?"_

_"You've finally returned!"_

Despite it was good that he was no longer a demon and could return to the people that knew him, Wol Ryung could not even make himself be as happy as the old friend in front of him now. How could he? When the price for all of that was something so dear...

"So Jung. Why didn't you ask me?"

So Jung blinked at him for a moment, before putting down the books he had been gathering from the ground. His friend turned towards him.

"What is it, Wol Ryung?"

Wol Ryung flinched slightly as his friend tried to hold his hand, wondering if So Jung was really clueless... or trying his best to not want to know or understand his questions.

"Why did you not ask _how_ I managed to revert back to my old self? Did you know already? Or did you refuse to know about it in order to not feel any obligation to care about it?"

His voice shook as he continued speaking out loud. The more he spoke out the words, the more pained his heart felt. His tone of voice that started to sound neutral, gradually took on an accusing note. He recalled those many years when So Jung has tried to stop him from interfering with other people's lives, how the man told him not to care.

So Jung frowned. "What are you talking about, Wol Ryung? Isn't it good that you turned back to your old self? What—"

"My son was not the one who turned me back to my old self,"

That made So Jung look up to him in confusion. Somehow he wondered if his old friend genuinely didn't know or...?

"She had the knife with her, all these times. Did you gave it to her? Did you told her that the only way I wouldn't turn into a demon, was by stabbing that knife into her heart?"

"Wol Ryung, what...!" asked So Jung again. Wol Ryung's eyes now glistened with tears.

"Did you hate her so much? Did you blamed her for causing me to become a demon?"

He had to ask that. He really do. Even if knowing about it now would not change anything.

"Wol Ryung..." So Jung said again, as his heart started to squeeze even more tightly.

"It's Seo Hwa! To restore my old self, she went so far as to sacrifice herself! Seo Hwa stabbed herself so that I could go back to who I was!"

He suddenly lashed out at So Jung as tears started falling from his eyes again. Recalling Seo Hwa's words earlier... how she sounded pained as if these 20 years she never stopped blaming herself for what happened. Even thought he never did; he never thought that Seo Hwa needed to be blamed for betraying him. Because it was his fault, for never daring to tell her the truth. For not telling her of the true fate that has befallen her younger brother and maid...

"Seo Hwa? What're you talking about, Wol Ryung? She's alive?"

Wol Ryung blinked the tears away as he looked up at him. "She's dead now. She risked her own safety to stop me from killing more people and then stabbed herself once I recovered a memory of her. Her body was still at the den, as if she was just sleeping,"

So Jung was very quiet. His old friend shook his head. "Wol Ryung... I didn't know. I... don't know what to say. I'm sorry..."

Wol Ryung sighed.

"It's my fault. Seo Hwa died because of me. If only I told her that I was a divine being from the very beginning. Perhaps, she wouldn't have had to die. If only I had been truthful to her from the start..."

He recalled how Seo Hwa had asked him the reason he lied to her. How she sounded so hurt, thinking that he deceived her to make her stay with him. For his personal gains...

_"You were my everything..."_

He never did have that chance to tell her that he also considered her _his_ everything. That his long life before felt empty until he met her. How seeing her smile at him every day meant a lot to him. Seo Hwa was not _just_ a passing breeze, she was his breath of life. Seo Hwa gave him a reason to be happy for being alive...

"Wol Ryung..." So Jung started to say as Wol Ryung turned to him again.

"I need your help. I want to see that child again, for the last time. Maybe."

So Jung staggered on his feet as he stared at his friend for a long time.

"Last time? What did you mean...?"

He smiled weakly.

"I don't want to be separated from my wife any more. I'll stay with her, for better or worse. Forever."

That's right. They'll be together forever. Nothing else would separate the two of them any more. He would no longer let go of her hand.

So Jung nodded slowly. "Very well. I'll lead the way."


End file.
